A group of leading scientists and academics today condemns as undemocratic and possibly illegal the government's plans to force through a new generation of nuclear power stations to meet Britain's energy needs for the next 30 years

The Northern Ireland Policing Board last night agreed to appoint a team of independent experts to re-examine evidence from the Omagh bombing, in an attempt to bring to justice those responsible for the 1998 atrocity

Christmas card snow scenes belatedly reached much of Britain yesterday, but the main effect of the briefest of cold snaps was to add to the misery of travellers disrupted by the overrun of rail repair work on the West Coast main line

Local churches presented the piece of public art to the city of Bournemouth to mark Christ's 2,000th birthday and the Millennium Candle soon became a focal point for mourners and a popular spot for protests. But then the bills started mounting

Strikes that would have shut seven of the UK's busiest airports and left hundreds of thousands of passengers grounded were called off yesterday after union officials accepted a management concession over pensions

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan yesterday batted away charges that his regime was complicit in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but admitted he was dissatisfied with progress in the controversial investigation

International p23

Primary elections attract far more voters than last night's caucuses in Iowa, where party activists dominate. For Republicans, that means evangelical Christians. For Democrats, it is union members and older voters

Leading candidates for the 2008 presidential election last night uprooted a years' worth of political organisation in Iowa and departed en masse for New Hampshire to begin campaigning today for the next phase of the race

California has gone head to head with the Bush administration over its approach to global warming, suing the US government for its refusal to allow the state to press ahead with its own cuts in car pollution

Financial p29

The rise and rise of oil prices is renewing interest in the 'peak oil' theories which originated in 1956 when the geologist M King Hubbert predicted that US oil production would peak in about 1970, which it did

Leader: On this island, the merest hint of a light dusting sends everyone into overdrive. Two things happen when the Met Office issues a snow warning: snow comes as an unfathomable shock to the few but a major disappointment to the many

Letters: It is disheartening that the honours committee has once again snubbed Professor Colin Blakemore (Report, December 29), apparently because of his willingness to speak out on the valuable role played by animal research in advancing medicine

Letters: The horrific massacre of people sheltering in a church in Eldoret (Kenya at breaking point, January 2) is a form of ethnic cleansing brought about by tribal rivalries, but its roots lie in the grotesque and desperate social conditions which make some people commit the most heinous of crimes

Obituaries p34

Dave Feickert, former head of research, NUM, writes: Andrew Glyn (obituary, January 1) was one of the economists who went to the aid of the mining communities against the pit closures of the 1980s and 90s